Fox Psychiatrist On Newt Gingrich: Infidelity A Sign Of Awesomeness

South Carolina's big primary is today, and Newt Gingrich is the most talked about man in America. He's been up, he's been down, and then he was up and then down and now up again, and the caprices of fate have given some Newtwatchers cognitive whiplash.

Dr. Keith Ablow is the most recent and obvious example. He's a pop psychiatrist on retainer with FOX News, and so devoted is he to to unraveling the mysteries of the human mind that one of his three tattoos features hands prying open a man's skull. One week ago, before his reason was destroyed by presidential politics, Dr. Ablow published a brief, rather murky essay at Foxnews.com entitled "America is drunk," in which he opined:

My theory is that Americans are on a flight from reality. Faced with painful facts—including the precarious state of the economy, the gathering storm represented by militant Muslims, in general, and Iran, in particular, the crumbling state of marriage in this country, the fact that our borders are being overrun, and the fact that our health care insurance system is in shambles (to name just a smattering of the troubles we desperately need to address)—we as a nation are drinking, drugging, gambling, smoking, Facebooking, YouTubing, Marijuaning, Kardashianing, Adderalling, Bono-ing (as in thinking of Chaz’s sad flight from reality as good), Prozacking, Twittering, and Sexting ourselves into oblivion.

The fact that we are doing this as a culture is the single most ominous psychological trend we have ever faced. I am not exaggerating. [Emphasis added.]

But now Dr. Ablow's changed his mind about the marriage thing, at least when it comes to Newt Gingrich. In an article published yesterday -- just five days after he declared the "crumbling state of marriage in our culture" a harbinger of the "single most ominous psychological trend we have ever faced" -- Dr. Ablow explained that Newt Gingrich's infidelities make him more qualified for the presidency than his competitors:

I want to be coldly analytical, not moralize, here. I want to tell you what Mr. Gingrich’s behavior could mean for the country, not for the future of his current marriage. So, here’s what one interested in making America stronger can reasonably conclude—psychologically—from Mr. Gingrich’s behavior during his three marriages:

1) Three women have met Mr. Gingrich and been so moved by his emotional energy and intellect that they decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with him.

2) Two of these women felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married.

3 ) One of them felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married for the second time, was not exactly her equal in the looks department and had a wife (Marianne) who wanted to make his life without her as painful as possible.

Conclusion: When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we’ll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we’ll want to let him go after one.

4) Two women—Mr. Gingrich’s first two wives—have sat down with him while he delivered to them incredibly painful truths: that he no longer loved them as he did before, that he had fallen in love with other women and that he needed to follow his heart, despite the great price he would pay financially and the risk he would be taking with his reputation.

Conclusion: I can only hope Mr. Gingrich will be as direct and unsparing with the Congress, the American people and our allies. If this nation must now move with conviction in the direction of its heart, Newt Gingrich is obviously no stranger to that journey.

... So, as far as I can tell, judging from the psychological data, we have only one real risk to America from his marital history if Newt Gingrich were to become president: We would need to worry that another nation, perhaps a little younger than ours, would be so taken by Mr. Gingrich that it would seduce him into marrying it and becoming its president. And I think that is exceedingly unlikely.

He goes on and on, but his message can be summed up as: 1) Newt Gingrich is awesome; and 2) therefore Newt's divorces must reflect his awesomeness; and 3) since even the Newt's divorces reflect his awesomeness, then 4) Newt Gingrich must be awesome. Dr. Ablow's just begging the question, and as a psychiatrist he ought to know it. If Newt had been a faithful husband, Dr. Ablow would be just as keen to interpret his fidelity as a valid qualification for the presidency. And if Newt was asexual, Dr. Ablow would be praising the man's monastic devotion to work. With this kind of reasoning, literally nothing could falsify Dr. Ablow's initial assumption.

One could look at the questionable grammar of Dr. Ablow's screeds (as in the first line of the second excerpt) or their wonky formatting (such as Dr. Ablow's switch from a bullet point format to an evidence/conclusion format midway through the above list) and conclude that he's a bit of an idiot. Except it's not just him. In South Carolina, a lot of people are thinking this way -- if the polls have it right, the trad-fam-loving Republicans of South Carolina are about to hand Newt Gingrich an enormous victory. It's Saturday, January 21st, one month into the primaries, and everyone's a little mad.

Morality is dead in America! These people will justify accepting anything just as long as it comes from one of their own. What kind of a signal are we sending to the younger generation of Americans? Newt is not a role model. He is a Fabian socialist that also happens to be a fat immoral slob. I would not vote for such a person. If that is how he treated his ex wife, what do you think he will do to Americans?

Posted by: Dagny | Jan 21, 2012 3:14:23 PM

these are the same people who insist that "gays" are going to destroy America, and than "brown foreigners" are a security threat.

hey Conservative Americans, you have the fattest children in the world. you have epidemic levels of gunviolence.

When I do it, it was just a lapse due to circumstances, for which I'm deeply sorry, because, as we all know, I am an immensely and inherently decent, righteous person. Besides, it shows how powerful and irresistible I am, so not only am I blameless, but anyone who finds me irresistible is blameless as well.

When you do it, it is because you are weak, inherently immoral, and out to destroy this country.

Posted by: TJ | Jan 21, 2012 3:55:03 PM

Dang it. Here all of my ex's were "awesome" and I thought they were just a bunch of man whores.

Posted by: TyInTenn | Jan 21, 2012 4:21:32 PM

I'm gonna use the same argument:

This man married two women, which means he promised them to love them and be faithful to them "till death to us part". And he didn't keep his promise.

So, what could U.S expect from a man who can't keep a promise?

Rick, can I say I love your comments? You have the best humour I've seen on my life.

Hmmm, having a few entertaining thoughts on what "doctorate" he actually holds. Somehow I don't think it is in botany (Dr. Laura anyone) -- I would suspect it is more likely in English, with an emphasis on post-modernism.

Posted by: CanadianObserver | Jan 21, 2012 4:45:39 PM

Ablow looks like a porn star.

Posted by: jason | Jan 21, 2012 4:58:51 PM

I can see tomorrows headlines. South Carolina rewards repeated adulterer because he is awesome

Posted by: sanity | Jan 21, 2012 5:35:47 PM

He's a morally bankrupt professional hypocrite, and not surprisingly he's hired by the official republican propaganda machine Faux News.

Posted by: E.N. | Jan 21, 2012 5:50:31 PM

quack quack !

Posted by: anthony | Jan 21, 2012 6:20:11 PM

It is true...it's very unusual for a millionaire to be able to purchase hotter, younger women. Purchase? I'm sorry, I meant marry. By which I mean purchase.

Also to that Rick dude...I don't have any problem with a man who admits that he cannot be sexually, emotionally or mentally satisfied by only one woman. That's a lot of men.
What I do have a problem with is a man who delivers divorce papers to his cancer-stricken dying wife because he doesn't want the baggage...and then lies about it. I think we as a society should have a problem with a man who quits when the going gets touch...trying to become president.

I think this so-called" psychologist neglected the field of abnormal psychology, because Gingrich strikes me as more of an example if Malignant Narcissism rather than "awesomeness. This guy is a cancer in the field of psychology.

I love Newt. He has almost singlehandedly proven, by gaining their support, that the so-called "values voters" actually have no values by their willingly ignoring his multiple adulterous relationships. Furthermore, he has proven the anti-Washington tea party to be the fraud that many have long suspected them to be by their support and endorsement of Gingrich, the consummate and ultimate Washington insider. These people want so badly to find a candidate who the believe will beat Obama that they are willing to sell their souls to the devil.

Posted by: ThomT | Jan 22, 2012 12:20:29 PM

I'm curious if someone has submitted a request for a review of his licenses. It seems to me that he's deep into malpractice, and that needs to be addressed.

Posted by: Tarc | Jan 22, 2012 3:26:00 PM

Previously, this guy ranted on the crumbling state of marriage in the U.S. hinting to the fact that gay marriage was the cause. Ummm...I think its folks like Newt and his hetero buddies that like to divorce and remarry and divorce and sleep around and... that are destroying marriage in this country. Now he is defending Newts slutty ways!! BTW - I cant think of any man more sexually unattractive than Newt. ICKKKKK!!!!!!!

Posted by: ajjanthony | Jan 22, 2012 4:32:14 PM

Who's the psychiatrist, Borat?

"Newt Gingriches can make sexy time with 200 women at one time."

Posted by: AJD | Jan 23, 2012 2:56:08 PM

I am a psychiatrist. I checked the American Psychiatric Association membership directory and Dr A isn't listed. However, the website for Tufts University *does* list him. You may wish to contact them and offer feedback on Dr A's extracurricular activities and how they reflect on the university that offers him a faculty position. By the way, the American Psychiatric Association official policies oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation, including in marriage. Things have changed over the last 40 years. Oh, and the 'men can't be monogamous' stuff above is not true: Some men can, some men can't. It's a big world.

Posted by: Evan | Jan 23, 2012 6:10:43 PM

More Newspeak from the land of 1984.

Posted by: Danny | Jan 25, 2012 8:47:04 AM

Quite the opposite, as explained in my blog about the Gingrich phenomenon today: http://www.newweddingplanet.com/membership/content/gingrich-who-stole-marriage